US podcast downloads and audience per platform

• Exclusive: Podtrac has shared total downloads and audience, split by platform. Based on 1.5 billion US downloads from participating publishers measured by Podtrac during August, Apple has 61.1% of all podcast downloads; but when measured by total audience, Spotify is closing in on Apple in the country. Founder and CEO of Podtrac, Mark McCrery, told Podnews “Apple continues to provide the largest US podcast audience, podcast downloads and streams, and downloads per audience member. Spotify has become a popular podcast player in the US but with fewer monthly downloads and streams per audience member currently.”

  • Analysis The downloads data is similar to Libsyn’s reported global downloads for July (Apple 68.4%; Spotify 9.1%): but the difference between “downloads” and “audience” is clear - Apple Podcasts might still be bringing in the downloads, but Spotify appears a significant service in terms of increasing podcasting’s total audience. This data would explain the discrepancies in some research for platform popularity, which typically measures audience, rather than downloads. (Some audiences may use both apps, of course). We’d expect to see these figures shift significantly as Joe Rogan’s audience moves onto Spotify.

• According to Libsyn’s The Feed, today is the last day to submit your podcast into Amazon Music/Audible to be there for the launch. Use your podcast host’s distribution option, or this link if your podcast host doesn’t have one. (If you wondered where Amazon makes its money, Benedict Evans has an illuminating piece today).

  
  Aug 27 2023: This broken link now points to the Internet Archive.

• On August 17, we reported that Anchor was hosting pirated podcasts. Aaron Mahnke is the latest high-profile podcaster to publicly criticise the platform, after discovering a pirated copy of his new podcast American Shadows on Anchor. “Same art, same description,” he adds.

• Spanish language audio on-demand platform iVoox has launched subscription platform iVoox Plus. Promising more than “10,000 exclusive episodes from the best shows”, the service is €9.99 a month (US $11.75). Content creators will be paid based on total plays and audience.

• Wondery+, the subscription service from podcast network Wondery, will be free for a year with a US American Express card, the company has announced. Check your “American Express Essentials Care Package” email from yesterday. It coincides with the recent releases of Bunga Bunga, focusing on former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, and the latest season of Business Wars, focusing on Pizza Hut vs Domino’s.

• A third of the adult population in Ireland have listened to podcasts recently: almost half doing so since the pandemic hit, according to new data.

• Exclusive: Transcrybr, an app that offers unlimited transcripts, will be released later today (midday New York time). “People can just hit record, it transcribes in real-time for however long they want, and they can share the transcription everywhere”, the app’s developer, Tanin Rojanapiansatith, tells us. It also has a words-per-minute meter which turns red if you talk too fast. You get unlimited time for US$3.99/month.

• Google Podcasts has had a little tweak: the 'cast’ button is now available on the now playing screen. It’ll make it easier to listen a show on speakers or displays.

• Former US President Bill Clinton is working on a new podcast for iHeartMedia, Deadline reports. Hillary Clinton is also planning a show with iHeartMedia too.

• The Security Weekly podcast network has been acquired by business intelligence company CyberRisk Alliance. The podcast network is fifteen years old.

• Comedian Murf Meyer has announced a new podcast about addiction and drug policy. It launches at the end of November.

• Advertising executive and former CEO of OMD Worldwide, Aegis Media and MEC, Mainardo de Nardis has joined the Board of Directors of Voxnest. He joined AdResultsMedia’s Board in July.

Tips and tricks - with Spotify for Podcasters

• An affordable social media strategy that you can 100% pull off all by yourself (Tanner Campbell). This mentions Zapier, which Podnews now uses for our social media posts.

  
  This link is no longer available, as at Aug 27 2023

• Creating a guest form for your podcast and make the process more pleasant and seamless for your guest (Dante32)

Podcast News - with 70 Million

70 Million is back for Season 3 starting next Monday. Each week, the Peabody-nominated podcast from Lantigua Williams & Co brings localities taking action: from the school-to-prison pipeline, to racialized policing, to the spread of COVID-19 in jails. 70 Million is also an open-source podcast that provides syllabi and resources to the public. The trailer is out now. (ad)

Oprah Winfrey has launched a podcast with Apple. Oprah’s Book Club is an accompaniment to a feature on Apple Books and Apple TV+. The podcast, an eight-part series that explores the eight pillars of caste outlined in Isabel Wilkerson’s book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”, is not exclusive to the Apple platform.

An Oral History of The Office is nearing its end - the finale is next week. A Spotify Original (but available everywhere), the current episode features the last episode of The Office, including a surprise return of Steve Carell (“Michael Scott”).

TRUE is a new weekly podcast from Cumulus Media’s Westwood One and Imperative Entertainment’s Podcast Division, focusing on weird-but-true stories. We’re promised, among other things, the story of ‘Balloon Boy’ – a six-year-old, trapped in a homemade helium-filled gas balloon shaped to resemble a flying saucer.
Dissect, exclusively on Spotify, is back for season 7. It looks at Childish Gambino’s “Because The Internet” album, and wonders why the artist behind it suddenly disappeared from the internet.

Brazil & Porky are back together again - Alan Brazil and Mike Parry, the former breakfast team at UK radio station talkSPORT, have been reunited by PodcastWorks for a podcast sponsored by sportswear retailer Footasylum.

The Lemar Show is the debut podcast from singer/songwriter Lemar: in conversation with “living legends, entrepreneurs, creatives and close friends”.